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We believe it’s time for us to honor our commitment to gaming. We came together to preserve our collective voice, which was being drowned out by an element of society*, who have taken it upon themselves to be the moral arbiters of what is ” OKAY ” and ”NOT OKAY.”

We are actively resisting a faux-inclusiveness, that aggressively seeks to exclude us.

For now lets put that aside and talk about Journalism. I’ll admit before this all started, I had a poor view of it. Everyone seems biased, pushing for their own brand of change. We know this, and yet tend to eagerly lap up whatever is said, if it happens to support our world view. From those strongly held beliefs, we derive our moral certitude.

Last night it occurred to me:

Journalism and Teaching have a lot in common, though I don’t think I’ve heard anyone make the parallel before.

Like journalists, teachers tend to go under-paid, under-appreciated and the teaching system can sometimes be rife with those trying to shovel their world view into the minds of whomever they have access to. Perhaps it’s time to think hard about the duty we have to society & to those we Inform and Educate.

Do we want free thinkers who apply their passion as they see fit?, or do we want rigid social guidelines enforced with an ironfist? Obviously neither is completely good or bad, thus we seek some semblance of Balance.

Yet here we stand, after 2 months of denials, censorship & collusion, all finally converging to produce a merciless smear campaign, which continues today. We’ve been maligned & vilified but remain Unbent; to submit that diversity of thought is a Right, and in serious need of protection.

We understand our opponents camp, we get you want a positive outcome, but child-proofing the world is the wrong way to go about it; and likewise, we aren’t interested in revisiting the Wild West mentality.

I’m no journalist, I’m just a voice in the crowd that wants everyone to do better. We aren’t blind to the reality of the pressures you face everyday. We simply want a few basic things to be understood.

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This isn’t a pointless harassment campaign. We simply want a small vocal minority to realize – We, who love games, did not invest them with the power to dictate to the market “what games are”. If the act of reviewing a game triggers a need to write a page and a half decrying it’s content, maybe that game isn’t for you. Consider passing that review off to a journalist on your team who might enjoy the content.

We believe that power belongs to the gamers. to the players. To us. An ‘In’clusive market includes all gamers, not just the sort you approve of. We respect your right to review, comment & pontificate. Please respect the power of your reach, and the influence you hold. Do not wield it as a cudgel, to force us into a form of your choosing.

If, instead of welcoming debate, you’d rather cling to your self-appointed lofts and hurl down buzzwords and smear campaigns, you can expect similar movements against you in the future from whichever audience you’ve ill-served. It is unfortunate that debate could not forestall this event, but keep in mind that opportunity was denied to us.

We desire accountability, reform and an acknowledgement that the customer should decide what they play – not journalists pushing dogmatic fringe ethics about gamer susceptibility to content, i.e. Jack Thompson in a new coat. This, we believe is the crux of the entire debate; If we cannot agree here, then this all truly was in vain.

We will continue to stand up for Freedom of Expression, Artistic Vision and a free market to decide what it wants. We suggest fans of Gone Home review Gone Home – and fans of God of War Review God of War. It is in this moment that professionalism engages, and a journalist demonstrates whether they are worthy of our trust.

This is not a Zero Sum Game. There is room for Gone Home, just as there is room for God of War III (as their artists envision them, and as the fans enjoy them) We believe “increasing possibilities” is important to grow and enrich the tapestry that is our gaming culture; but it must be done with Care and Patience. Think of it as a field to be cultivated, rather than as stones to be sundered.

We are always open to rational debate on the validity of these points, however; intellectually dishonest engagement may be met with creative ridicule. Please take this last bit with a grain of salt, and respect the quirks of the culture from which we come.

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That’s about it.

Honestly, it’s not our job to tell you how to do your job, but it is our job to tell you, when we think you aren’t serving your audience.

So please collaborate with other journalists, draw up a list of ethics, hash it out and go from there. I believe such examples have already been demonstrated in the wake of this.

#GamerGate

We ask that you Assemble your Crew; we await a Response, Dialogue Matters.

To any writers/reporters or news sites, i would like to carry this proposal to as many eyes as possible. if you can help me in this, i welcome it greatly. Please help me spread this)

The sites above supported us from the beginning. I encourage you to take a moment, check them out, see how they feel to you. Every click takes us one step closer to preserving the gaming community we fought so hard for.

Also, I have it on good authority; neoGAF users banned due to this controversy are welcome on evilavatar.com – if u behave.

*-A Clarification.

[ On Corruption vs “social justice” : Usually, corruption is the result of vying for political, financial, and/or personal enrichment, as each perpetrator values them. The reason i decided to comment on social justice here, is because it seems to have contributed to the desire to collude. & gives motive for the obviously overzealous “moderation” of all sites with sympathetic moderators at their helm. 2 news sites (Techraptor.com) & GamesNosh.com were also targeted for ‘covering the story’ & The escapists’ forums were DDOS’d for allowing moderated discussion to continue. ]

A Final Thought

[I’m not sure its a law yet, but if the contributors of a news site or expansive news aggregate network are potentially implicated in a crime or suspected of a cover up, i’m sure how wise it is to allow them to continue reporting on and influencing the public’s impressions concerning the plausibility of their own potential wrongdoings. ]